Cohen had an answer for everything asked of him during Tuesday's 45-minute introductionMETS
New Mets Owner Steve Cohen and President Sandy Alderson yesterday spoke for 45 minutes each in a news conference that "heralded a new day in the often-tortured history of the team," offering "startlingly smooth, pitch-perfect messaging from a team rarely known to consistently articulate its principles," according to Tyler Kepner of the N.Y. TIMES. Cohen "grew up taking the train from Great Neck on Long Island to Shea Stadium to watch the Mets from the upper deck with his buddies," so Mets fans now have "one of their own in charge." Cohen said, “I’m essentially doing it for the fans. When I really thought about this, I could make millions of people happy, and what an incredible opportunity that is. That’s how I’m thinking about this. I’m not trying to make money here. I have my business at Point 72 and I make money over there." Meanwhile, for Alderson, the "chance to preside over the Mets’ baseball and business operations intrigued him, he said, because of Cohen, and the 'immense possibilities' he represents for a tattered brand." Alderson said that in Cohen he "found an owner who could restore respectability and shed the well-earned label for slapstick." Cohen: “I’m not in this to be mediocre. That’s just not my thing. I want something great, and I know the fans want something great. That’s my goal and that’s what I’m going to do" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/11).
COHEN WON'T OVERSTEP: ESPN.com's Jeff Passan referred to Cohen's press conference as "45 pitch-perfect minutes." For a franchise without a World Series title since '86, and one whose ownership by the Wilpon family over recent decades has been a "masterclass in mismanagement," yesterday "registered as monumental -- as the day the Mets not only became a big league franchise again but also leapfrogged into baseball's upper echelon." Cohen "had an answer for everything." Some could suggest that after years of the Wilpons' "peskiness at times derailing the Mets, Cohen's barging in as a know-everything fan would've been more of the same." But Cohen said, "I played Little League once. That's about it. I'm gonna let the professionals, Sandy and the people we bring in, let them run baseball." Passan noted who those people will be is the "subject of widespread speculation around baseball." Because of the "plans and resources, the Mets' president of baseball operations job has become one of the most coveted in the game" (ESPN.com, 11/10). MLB Network’s Brian Kenny said of Cohen’s press conference, “That was impressive. This looks like an owner who has a true understanding of how Major League Baseball works, talking about sustainable decision-making processes, patience, collaborative culture, analytics, also the human side. ... Cohen seems to really get it." MLB Network’s Dan O’Dowd: “That was as impressive a press conference I’ve ever seen" (MLB Network, 11/10).
PLAYING THE LONG GAME: USA TODAY's Bob Nightengale writes the "easy narrative" would be for Cohen, worth $14.6B, to "announce that he’s going to buy every free agent they want, blow past the luxury tax and become the ultimate destination for any player who wants to set up generations of his family." Cohen "swiftly dismissed those ideas." He said, “You build championships, you don’t buy them." Nightengale writes the Mets instead "want to spend the money building an infrastructure, a model franchise that reaches the postseason every year, scouting and developing their players better than everyone else and generating ideas with a diverse workplace that make the Mets into a baseball utopia." Alderson said, “Suddenly, overnight, I think people are interested in working for the Mets who were perhaps not before. I think players are interested in playing for the Mets who perhaps were not before." Nightengale writes the Mets "haven’t won a thing on the field, but they may [have] started to gain the trust of a weary fan base" (USA TODAY, 11/11).
HOPEFUL START: CBSSN’s Adam Schein said, "Cohen hit a major grand slam today at his introductory news conference. Mets’ fans should be elated” (“Time to Schein,” CBSSN, 11/10). In N.Y., Joel Sherman writes Cohen yesterday "avoided critique on what existed under the previous regime, yet commented on it definitively with each answer about what he expects." A "sense of solid direction, bountiful resources and great hope percolated from Mets ownership." For the "first time in a long time," the Mets "won the press conference" (N.Y. POST, 11/11). On Long Island, David Lennon writes as a "lifelong Mets fan from Great Neck, Cohen was giddy for the same reason everybody watching at home was -- because someone exactly like him bought his favorite team" (NEWSDAY, 11/11). MLB Network's Matt Vasgersian said Mets fans “have been waiting for something like this to reinvigorate their brand for a long time." He added, "Maybe this is the beginning of some spending and some good things there" (MLB Network, 11/10).
